Kansas Values for a better Tomorrow

Access to healthcare is something that is becoming harder to achieve in our rural areas. The recent pandemic taught us the need to have a robust Public Health Service and access to medical care in those areas that struggle with physician shortages.

Expansion of services such as Medicaid will help assist those who live outside of Metropolitan and Urban areas by providing an expanded network of services. Healthcare should be available to every Kansan. I support Expanding Medicaid to cover the insurance gap and funding state Medicaid to eliminate the disability wait list. Too often, people cannot afford healthcare insurance and go without medical care, fracturing the quality of life. Kansas left millions of Federal dollars on the table and thousands uninsured when it refused to expand Medicaid. I have seen the results of what a lack of healthcare coverage can do. I have seen emergency rooms crowded with people who could not afford to see a healthcare provider regularly and had to wait until they were so sick they had no choice but to go to the emergency room. I have seen the results of what a worldwide pandemic can do and how people suffered because no vaccine or treatments were available to help keep them from dying.

Let’s give our Seniors the right to age in their homes. On average, the cost of a semiprivate nursing home room is $260 a day. By keeping Kansans in their homes longer, we can save our current programs money. The cost savings speaks for itself, let’s take those savings and build new access to home care programs and services in our communities. Let’s stop the practice of forcing people to leave their homes to look elsewhere for care. Medicaid expansion will help power these programs by expanding current in home care programs to encompass a wider population of elders and those with disabilities.

The first sentience of the Kansas Construction, under Article 6, says, “The legislature shall provide for intellectual, educational, vocational and scientific improvement by establishing and maintaining public schools.”  I believe that our forefathers considered education of our young to be important for the continued growth and prosperity of our state. The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld this by ruling that the Kansas Legislature fully fund public schools. It is our responsibility as legislators to expand opportunities that fit today’s society. Public dollars for public schools!

I continued public service by becoming a substitute teacher in the middle of COVID. I watched our children struggle with isolation and lack of educational opportunity and teachers leaving the profession because of the lack of support from school districts. I have watched teachers struggle because of overcrowded classrooms. I started carrying a box of pencils in my bag and extra paper to make sure every child had the supplies they needed for the day. I have seen firsthand the lack of school staff and the struggle to cover every classroom. Public School Education funding education for tomorrow’s leaders, our early pioneers to Kansas felt public schools were so important, it is one of the first things they placed in the Kansas constitution. We need policies that strengthen and grow Public Schools. We need policies that support Teachers and give them the tools they need to educate.

If asked, most people would say “Fairness to All” is simply treating others as we would like to be treated; with fairness, kindness, and respect. I believe in fairness to all under the law regardless of sex, race, color, religion, or creed. There should be no oppression of children, those who are different, the poor, and the weak in our state. Kansas should be a state where opportunity, equality and justice are the rule of law.

Protection of rights like the 2^nd amendment should be kept in place with reasonable solutions to our growing gun violence issues brought before our legislature.

Women are being treated as second class citizens when it comes to healthcare access. They are told what they can or cannot do concerning their care by outsiders.  Last August, voters in Kansas rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have said there was no right to an abortion in the state. We need to continue to uphold the voice of the voters and keep women’s healthcare decisions between themselves and their physicians. We must be consistent and vigilant in our support of this issue and fight against legislation that seeks to undo what we have already set in place.

Protecting our neighbors, not oppressing them.